Folding cartons have a long history as containers for beverage bottles, and particularly for beer bottles. At first, these bottles were almost entirely of the returnable nature and thus cartons were required to withstand both transport to the place of consumption and return of the bottles to the place of purchase. The containers typically employed for this purpose included a plurality of pockets formed from intersecting webs of heavy paperboard carried within a generally rectangular folding carton. These cartons were both loaded and unloaded from the top and typically included a pair of top closure flaps which were hinged to the front and rear walls and folded against each other in the center.
After years of employing returnable bottles, the trend then moved towards throw-away non-returnable bottles. Since these bottles were not designed to be returned to the place of purchase, the cartons employed for carrying them were of a completely different nature. Typically, these cartons were formed of a lighter weight paperboard and included a plurality of pockets and an upstanding handle to form the traditional "six-pack".
More recently, with the ever increasing emphasis on ecology and its demand for litter control and recycling, along with litter control or "bottle bills" being enacted by some state legislatures, returnable bottles are making a comeback. However, with inflation and increased shipping costs, the old-fashioned heavy paperboard carton for returnable bottles is no longer completely acceptable. Thus, a lightweight structure, which does not require the intersecting webs of paperboard is desired. It is thus one purpose of the present invention to provide a carton for beverage bottles, and particularly returnable beer bottles, which is designed to protect the bottles without the necessity of internal padding by employing the close packing of the bottles to protect themselves.
It is also a desired property for such a carton to be end-loaded, for the convenience of the bottler during his high speed packaging operations, and at the same time the top-unloading, for the convenience of the consumer. It is also a primary object of the present carton structure to be both end-loading and top-unloading.
Additionally, it is desired that the carton be one-piece and use as little paperboard as possible, to reduce the cost of the container, and yet retain a carrying structure which is simple to operate and reliable. It is thus an additional object of the present invention to provide such a carrying feature.